Stay on target

I have a Mophie battery case on my iPhone right now. The iPhone’s battery is decent enough but considering how heavily I use it, I don’t want to leave anything to chance and risk losing power during an emergency. The case’s micro-USB port even provides a handy way to power the device when Lightning cables aren’t available. But best of all, while the case is plugged into the Lightning port, the headphone jack is exposed, allowing me to listen to music while the phone charges. How novel!

So how did I pull off this sorcery? By having an iPhone SE, the last good iPhone. And ever since Apple “courageously” removed the headphone jack from modern iPhones, users without wireless headphones have been forced to choose between plugging in a battery case or plugging in headphones into the same, sole Lightning port. But there’s never been a good reason why you can’t have it all, and now Mophie is giving it all to you with its new Juice Pack Access Battery Case at CES 2019.

“The Juice Pack Access Battery Case addresses a very specific customer pain point,” said Robert Johnson, general manager for Mophie, said in a statement. And that pain point is the dumb iPhone Lightning port design flaw. This battery case, designed for any model of iPhone X, solves the problem by merely leaving the Lightning port exposed while it’s attached.

It sounds simple enough, but to pull this off the Juice Pack Access takes advantage of the still pretty radical new wireless charging technology. The case is compatible with Qi charging pads, like the new iPhones themselves, and uses that tech to then wirelessly feed power into the phone. You can also charge the case with a wired USB-C cable. Of course, the open Lightning port lets you directly charge the iPhone with a cord, and the case always provides power to the phone before itself.

Beyond this Lightning port innovation, the Juice Pack Access features a slimmer profile that still provides impact protection, and the extra power offers between 25 and 31 hours of talk time depending on if you have an iPhone Xs/X, iPhone Xs Max, or iPhone XR. Your phone’s model also determines which colors are available, like black or gold or blue or red. But all versions of the Mophie Juice Pack Access Battery Case launch this quarter for $119. For more on Apple check out these iPhone security patents and shake your head at the new iPad’s similarly dumb port situation.